Piano Playbox

Wondering what I’ve been up to recently at Piano Playbox? Well, one of the projects that I’ve been most excited about is my new rote piece collection "Imagine". I've been wanting to create this collection for a long time and I've been slowly chipping away at it for the past 6months. I've been testing some of the pieces on my students and so far the kids are really enjoying them. I can’t wait to share the finished product with you super soon!

I'm curious. Do you use rote repertoire much in your studio?

Helping your students think about the musical palette of their compositions is another great way to get students thinking more deeply about the meaning and intent of their music.

Creating a musical palette is as simple as deciding which instrumentation you want to use (for most of our students that will be the instrument they are learning), how complex the texture is going to be ie. a simple melody only, or a densely packed chordal piece, and which pitch range the piece will encompass, perhaps a really wide range from low to high, or a narrow range keeping within an octave.

With these ideas, your students can design a musical palette whenever you start a new composition project.

In my lastest blog post I talk about how I design a musical palette from ideas inspired by the story. Head to Link in Bio to read it.👆👆👆

Teaching intervals is fundamental to helping students learn to read music fluently. I like to get my students learning to recognise and label intervals really early on in the process. As not all students are at the same level I wanted to make this game accessible to teachers who have students in various stages of their learning. So inside the Interstellar Intervals Game pack are four separate games to play:

➡ On the staff - naming a note the stated interval above or below.
➡ On the keys - naming a note the stated interval above or below.
➡ On the staff - naming a harmonic interval size.
➡ On the keys - naming a harmonic interval size.

Want to know more? Head to 🔗 in Bio to find out where to get these.

Online games are becoming quite necessary these days. I definitely needed them when I was teaching online. That's why I created these games in the first place because I needed them to help in my online lessons. Now that I am teaching face to face again I discovered that I'm also using them. Saves on printing!! Bonus.

What I also love about these games is their interactivity. Students can play them unassisted with feedback on right and wrong answers. You can also assign students to work on them at home between lessons.

Sound good to you? Head to my link in Bio for more info.⬆⬆⬆

When you're composing, knowing how to make music "match" an emotion or a feeling can be very difficult. Which is why spending a little time brainstorming words to describe the feeling or emotion you're wanting to convey, can really help you figure out how to make music from this.

Whenever I'm working with a student on a composition the very first thing I do is ask them to use words to describe the emotions they feel or that they want their music to express.

Once you have words you have something tangible that you can link to musical ideas such as pitch, dynamic, tempo, timbre etc...

Have you tried this process for yourself or your students?

What a crazy month!! We’re already into the third month of the year... what?? 🤯 February was a massive month for me personally and balance between family and work was a biggie. While work on Piano Playbox took a back seat for a bit I just wanted to share my biggest highlights, because even though we can't always put in the hours we want to in our passions, any progress is progress nonetheless, and that's worth celebrating.

So here are my wins for Feb:

⭐ Finally finished the outline for my 3rd Sensory Sight Reading book. March is going to be a busy month...
⭐ Finished composing the last two songs for my 16 rote piece collection, "Imagine", coming soon.
⭐ Reached my store income goals for February by the middle of the month. Yay!

I’d love to know what successes you had last month too! Drop your wins in the comments, I'd love to read them.

These tips follow my exact process for finding musical ideas when I'm working on the music for a film project or any new composition project. You can use these steps in the most basic of applications.

For example.
1. Grab a picture book
2. Think about the main character in the book and the journey they take.
3. How does the picture in the story reflect the characters feelings or their journey?
4. Brainstorm any words you come up with - ie. brave, exciting, action
5. Connect sound ideas to these words - ie. fast rhythms, loud dynamic, low range pitch

And away you go...

For more detail read my latest post "How To Compose Powerful Music Using Stories" here https://www.pianoplaybox.com/teaching-composition-using-stories/

Why not learn your intervals with a galactic twist! 🌖🌘🌔🌒

Interstellar Intervals is a multi-level game pack including 4 games that game be played online (google slides) or offline (interactive PDF). The best part is that they're interactive, so students can play unassisted with answers and prompts to try again. Great for lab time or for at home between lessons.

Find out more at https://www.pianoplaybox.com/product/interstellar-intervals-interactive-games/

Do your students love playing movie soundtracks! 🎥 Jurassic Park, Star Wars, LOTR, Frozen!

That’s because film music is catchy and memorable, YES? And also evocative and just so darn effective at connecting with our emotions.

But do you know WHY they are so effective? Or HOW they’re able to connect with your emotions on such a powerful scale?

You guessed it, it's STORY!

Stories are so valuable for teaching in so many ways. But it can be daunting for teachers to know where to start using them to help students compose their own music.

In my latest post I go through the steps that I've always used for creating musical ideas from stories, drawing on my experiences as a film composer.

Read it at https://www.pianoplaybox.com/teaching-composition-using-stories/

🎥 The secret to a great film soundtrack is the ability of the music to connect with us on a subconscious level. To tap into our emotions and tell a story without us even realising what's happening.

Creating music that can do this may SEEM like a masterful skill that takes years and years of training and practice.

But really it's not that complicated.

It all about stories and learning to analyse them, and to pull out the bits that can be used for musical inspiration. And even beginner students can do this.

📖Just ask a newbie student to imagine an elephant walking through the jungle and to improvise this story on the piano. They might play low, long, and heavy sounds on the keyboard. What they're doing here is tapping into their own memories and associations and creating music that sounds like the story. Amazing!

We can all do this!

How do you use stories in your lessons?🐘🐘🐘

I'm not where I thought I would be 20 years ago. I had different plans. Big goals.
My former self had serious ambitions to be a film composer and I pursued this dream for 15 years working in Film and TV as a composer and orchestrator.
That is until a devastating personal event made me completely reevaluate what was important to me. The fast-paced, superficial, transient world of the film industry left me feeling empty, and without purpose. My experience completely skewed my trajectory and inspired me to pursue a more meaningful life where I could make a difference on a larger scale.
Teaching has brought that meaning into my life now. It has given me purpose and real energy and enthusiasm for creating and sharing and educating.
But I didn't always feel this way and I spent several years feeling depressed that I had devoted so much time to something that didn't pan out. My life felt like one big mistake!
I've realised now that my choices were never a mistake because I would not have what I have now if I hadn't lived that life. There are no mistakes on this journey, only lessons.
Who else here has had a cobbled journey to your piano/music teacher life?

Happy Valentines Day everyone! 💝💘💗I have all my Valentines resources ready for my students today. It’s gonna be fun! Have you got anything Valentiny in store for your students today?

Laminating pleasures! Who's with me? There's just something innately satisfying about laminating gorgeously colourful pages. Making these colour prints shiny and durable.🌟 Love it! Yes, it's also doubly satisfying when it's your own creation. It just brings me so much joy making these things and I can't wait to share them with my students on Monday for some Valentine's Day composing fun.

"Love, love, love these, especially useful for those with anxiety if they don”g like surprises about what is coming next. Also good to encourage students who struggle to make decisions to start to make them. They are a really great size too and would work for in-person and online lessons."

Wow, thanks so much . 🤩 It’s kind words like this that inspire me to work harder each and every day. Thank you for sharing Karen. If I can help amazing teachers like you, in even the smallest way, I’ve done my job. Thanks again. 🥰

If you wanna see what Karen is talking about? Head to my store https://www.pianoplaybox.com/product/power-play-cards/.

I’ve been a little absent on here lately. This time of year is always pretty tricky for me as the kids are finishing up their summer holidays and my studio is winding back up. I have enrolments, scheduling, planning, communications. It’s all go go go.
I usually try to juggle it all and still make time for my online business but these past few weeks I’ve decided that I have to say no.✋Because what’s important to me right now is my family. My beautiful, rambunctious, vivacious and wacky daughter Clara started kindy this week. I cried as she walked off with her class for the very first time. It was both thrilling and devastating at the same time. 😃😭
Helping her settle into her new routine is my focus right now but I’ll be back soon.✨

My second Valentines game is Hearts and Keys ❤️🗝. While perfect for a Valentine theme in your studio, it will also be a great game for all year round use.

I'm a huge believer in reading by intervals. In Hearts and Keys, students learn to see intervals in terms of their visual qualities so that they can see intervals as a whole and not the notes or steps in between.

I want students to be able to recognise instantly AT A GLANCE whether an interval has an ODD number (unison, 3rd, 5th 7th) or an EVEN number (2nd, 4th, 6th, 8ve). This game gets right into reinforcing this skill.

And it's super pretty too...😍

Check it out here https://www.pianoplaybox.com/product/hearts-and-keys/

❤️Looking for some Valentines Day games for your studio. I have some games coming your way.

Today I'm launching Valentine Bingo. A multi-player game for beginners that reinforces basic theory with a sweet assortment of concepts.

Head to https://www.pianoplaybox.com/product/valentine-bingo/ to find out more.

❤️Doing the final proofs for some Valentines games coming out soon. What better day for it but a foggy wet mountains day 🌧. Feeling very peaceful. Just over week till I’m back to work where I’ll crack out these games for my beginner students but I’ll be launching them here in just a few days. Stay tuned.

Hey Piano Teachers! Ready to start checking off those goals? ⭐ Grab your FREE Goal planning pages inside my post Move Big Goals With The 90 Day Goal Planner For Piano Teachers. ⬆⬆⬆Head to https://www.pianoplaybox.com/90-day-goal-planner-for-piano-teachers/ and give yourself the push you need to get started making progress on your goals?

For some tips on how the Musical Life Goal Planner works head over to my blog post which goes through the process Step By Step!

Head to https://www.pianoplaybox.com/90-day-goal-planner-for-piano-teachers/ to read on.

Who has ever tried something new, with a student, or inside your business, or in your personal life, that just hasn't worked?

What do you do? Do you throw that idea onto the garbage heap? Or do you try to amend the idea, refine it, learn and adapt from what didn't work?

Getting into the habit of reviewing past actions is such a valuable step in our evolution and especially reviewing what hasn't worked. Because there really is no better way to learn than from failures or mistakes.

What's the best thing you've learned that's come out of a failure?

Comparison sabotage.💥 I’m sure most of us have experienced this in one way or another. I definitely struggled with this for years in many facets of my life. As a teacher, as a composer, as a mother. And I would be lying if I said it doesn’t still happen. Where I compare myself, and my actions, and my achievements with others and then through this comparison prevent myself from moving forward in a positive way.

The best way I have found to move past this is to stay focused on my own path and to filter out all the noise around me. I often repeat the mantra “stay in your lane” when I'm struggling.

But in order to "stay in my lane", I have to regularly check in on my goals and remind myself to work through them systematically. Focussing only on what is important to me right now.

This is a large part of why I created the Musical Life Planner. To help me "stay in my lane" and get to work on my goals instead of getting stuck in comparisons.

If this sounds like you too then head to the link in Bio to look at the Musical Life Planner. I truly believe it can help you the way it has helped me.

Do you compare yourself with others? 🙋🏻‍♀️ If you answered yes, I HEAR YOU.
I’m a chronic comparison syndrome sufferer. Have been for years!! In my early days of teaching, I would constantly compare myself to my mother - concert pianist, technique guru, teacher maestro that she is - and think I’m just nowhere near as good as her so why do I even bother! Never really paid any attention to the fact she had 30 years more experience than me. 🤦🏻‍♀️
But seriously how often do you compare yourself with others, in both a professional space and a personal/social space?
What we all need to remember (including myself) is that we’re all on our own unique path travelling at our own pace, and comparisons with others are only ever going to be skewed and unrealistic. We should only EVER compare ourselves today with ourselves in the past, and reflect on the progress WE'VE made and the achievements WE'VE accumulated over time.
Thank you to my good friend and mindset coach for reminding me of this recently.
✨Does this resonate with you? Double tap if yes, and let me know your thoughts below.

Flash Sale ends TODAY. 💥 Last chance to get 20% off. Head to link in Bio to check it out. Coupon Code: playboxjan20

Do you remember the first interval you ever sang? 😚 I’m guessing the answer is no unless your parent was a musical person. Maybe they remembered and remarked on it. Or maybe that’s just in my family... My mother regularly retells stories of me singing a minor 9th perfectly when I was 3 (I was apparently heard singing the beginning of the Bach Harpsichord Concerto in Dmin over and over as my mother was playing it at the time).
Anyhoo, my 16month old son has just started singing minor 3rds quite consistently. His favourite music right now is the 4th mvt of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet which starts with a minor 3rd.
But it made me realise that Kolady may have really been onto something with his ideas that students should start their aural intervals with the minor 3rd. Perhaps there is something about this interval that is more natural, more instinctive for kids to learn in the beginning.
Do you start with the minor 3rd first when beginning aural intervals? If so why and how do you approach this? I’d love to know how it works for you.

It’s SALE time! 💥 To celebrate the start of 2022 I’m offering 20% off everything in my store. Because who doesn’t love a bargain, right? But you’d better get in quick - this flash sale is only running until January 8.
⭐Coupon Code: playboxjan20
🏃‍♀Run, don’t walk, to https://www.pianoplaybox.com/teaching-store/

Let’s talk about GOALS. 🥅 Big goals. Small goals. Whatever the goal, if you struggle to make progress on them then I wanna help.

As a piano teacher, who is also a studio business owner, and an online business owner, and a composer, and a creator of digital resources, and a self-development nut, I am constantly moving from one idea to the next. So I created this planner to help me bring it all into focus.

I wanted a system that would help me narrow down what needed to happen first, and when, and how to reflect on the effectiveness of my actions so that I'm always improving my process.

If this sounds like something that could help you then I'm super excited to share that my Musical Life 90 day Goal planner FOR piano teachers has launched.🚀

Head to Link in Bio to check it out.⬆⬆⬆

Happy New Year everyone. 🥳 I'm so happy to be saying goodbye to 2021 and really excited about what's coming up in 2022.

It's the time of year that we start thinking about goals. Big goals are great. I have many BIG goals. They may be far off and distant but they help remind me of the big picture. They give purpose and meaning to my day to day actions. Without them, my efforts would lack purpose, lack direction.

But let's not forget that it's the small goals, the baby steps, the micro-actions that really propel your forward with your goals. So remember to give yourself a pat on the back for the small wins and the ticks on the checklist.

What are your big goals for 2022. Let me know in the comments. ⬇⬇⬇

Has 2021 been a good year for you? 🤷🏻‍♀️The vast majority of us have had a tough year. Let's be honest. Circumstances have not been ideal, but when you look back and really take notice of what you’ve achieved in the past year you might be surprised.

We take for granted the things we do well and tend to dwell on the things that don't go so well for us. Instead, take a moment or two to reflect on all the good stuff that has come out of this year.

For me I started the year off with a newborn baby and two older kids under 6, a 40 student studio with 4 teachers on my books, and two 2 self-published sight reading books published on Top Music Marketplace.

My achievements for this year:
⭐ Created the Piano Playbox brand
⭐ Launched new website and teaching store
⭐ Created and published a further 20 new products (theory games and resources, sheet music collections, composition books and worksheets, technique books and a 75 page planner) and I have half a dozen more products in the final stages of development.
⭐️Hired 2 more teachers for my studio and student numbers are up despite extended lockdowns.
⭐ Survived 2 lockdowns and homeschooling while running two business and a newborn with my sanity intact. BIG win✔️

Now it’s over to you… what are your 2021 achievements? Let me know in the comments so I can cheer you on.

What have YOU achieved this past year? 🏆If you answered “not much” then chances are you’ve not taken the time to really reflect on the details of your past year. You may be surprised by the many successes you’ve had and the progress you’ve made.

Head to https://www.pianoplaybox.com/yearly-review-for-piano-teachers/ to read my latest blog post.

COMING SOON.⭐️ I hope you love systems as much as I do because you’ll find them inside this planner. I created it specifically to help piano teachers like you (and me) with goal planning, by providing a simple but effective process for creating clarity and focus.

I’ve been working on this project on and off for months and I’m so excited to be ready to launch it in early January.

Do you have any big goals for 2022? Let me know in the comments. ⬇⬇⬇

🎄Wishing you all a wonderful, fun filled and festive Christmas Day with your loved ones🎄⛄️🎁

Time off with my favourite little people. It’s so nice to take a break from “everything” except enjoying family.

And the first time ever making a gingerbread house… sooo much fun!

Do you have any Christmas firsts this year?

New on the store this week is "Animal Alphabode" 🐾🐾🐾. Help your beginner students with their keyboard geography and basic keyboard intervals with this super cute digital printable card set.

⭐ Bonus #1: Comes with 2 x google slides versions for online lessons.
⭐ Bonus #2: Reinforce concepts with 4 matching printable worksheets.🐾

Grab yours at https://www.pianoplaybox.com/product/animal-alphabode/

Do you stress out this time of year? Do you worry whether your students are going to practice, or whether you've given them enough material to get through the break, or that you're running out of time to master this piece or that before the holidays? We put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect and prepared, don't we?

You know what though, it's been a sh*tty year, actually a sh*tty couple of years, and I think we all deserve to give ourselves some kindness.

With only another week or so left of lessons give yourself permission to just have fun in your lessons. Play lots of games, sing Christmas songs, create a fun Christmas composition together.

Just enjoy yourself, you deserve a break.🥰

You can never know everything there is to know, about anything!!!

Yeah, so sometimes I might read something I've heard before. The old me might have said. "I already know this, there's nothing new for me to learn here". But this attitude really kept me from having an open mind, curious and willing to explore new ideas.

💡Truth is, there can always be a different spin on things you already know. There can always be a perspective that you haven't tried.

That's why I love communities like this one where we are all sharing our ideas and unique approaches. I love soaking it all up. It gives me fresh ideas to try, inspiration and energy to create more.

Do you agree? Would love to hear YOUR perspective on this.👇👇👇

"Story" really helps students connect with music. Students that can create a really clear image, feeling, emotion to their piece will not only enjoy it more but they will perform it with more musicality, allowing audiences (anyone listening) to connect as well.

I love creating music with a really strong narrative to help students with this vital skill. "Secret Garden" has a story built-in so it's easy to get the imagination going.

Grab yours at https://www.pianoplaybox.com/product/secret-garden/

Do you find that having a strong story or image helps with the performance of pieces? Would love to know your thoughts. ⤵⤵⤵

Piano Playbox updated their business hours.